Review by: The Muskox

My whisky MO has always been to taste as wide a variety of flavours as possible. As such, my limited budget has always gone more towards samples and bottle splits instead of full bottles for myself. The bottles I get for myself (or that are left over from my own splits) tend to empty very, very slowly. I’ve currently got 26 on the shelf— oh wait, make that 25, since I finished this Dalwhinnie last night. I’ve been accumulating notes for several months now. Time to share them to pay homage to a fallen bottle.

This is pretty much the only independently-bottled Dalwhinnie I’ve ever seen, so I was thrilled to find a bottle for sale for a decent price.

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Distillery: Dalwhinnie.

Bottler: North Star Spirits.

Region: Highlands.

ABV: 52%.

Age: 13 years. Distilled in March 2008, bottled in July 2021.

Cask type: Hogshead.

Price: $140 CAD in 2021.

Color: 0.9, Amontillado sherry. Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.

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Nose: Citrusy and earthy, with a surprising amount of peat. Lemon squares, lemongrass, orange oils, and a little pineapple. Fallen logs and leaves. Shortbread cookies, toffee, and milk chocolate. Some rather old-school peat smoke – burning coal and wet clay. A hint of cider vinegar tartness.

Palate: Medium-thick texture, a hint of oiliness. Arrives with very fragrant orchard fruit notes of green apples, muscat grapes, and underripe nectarines. Develops to strong coal smoke, black pepper, waxy chocolate, and smooth caramel. Sappy wood, but in a good way – birch twigs and green coconut.

Water brings a thicker texture and more fruit on the arrival. Banana, but good banana. Very herbal and smooth, almost dill-like.

Finish: Medium, earthy. Apple, Chocolate Orange, chalk. Chocolate Orange, nutmeg. Wet hay, black pepper, and campfire smoke.

With water, it’s longer and smokier. Darker chocolate now. Sweet herbs and bergamot.

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Possible SMWS bottling name: “Camping out on the riverbank”

Conclusion: You know, the flavours here aren’t even that different from Dalwhinnie 15, but the richness and depth of flavour is turned up to a ridiculous degree. The biggest style difference is the level of peat smoke and earthiness, and the last glass out of this bottle was the smokiest yet. Dalwhinnie’s worm-tub condensers bring an old-school earthiness closer to Craigellachie than anything else widely available today. This is a great bottling that makes me even sadder that Dalwhinnie is so hard to find bottled properly.

Final Score: 85.

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Scoring Legend:

• 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
• 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
• 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
• 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
• 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
• 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
• 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
• 50-59: Save it for mixing.
• 0-49: Blech.